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Tuesday, August 21, 2012

tomato + eggplant cobbler

I found some beautiful stuff at the farmer's market this past weekend. Including these gorgeous purpley-red tomatoes.

And these wacky looking eggplants. Yes, these are all eggplant!

And I was thinking about what to make with all of it. A big salad? Another pot of ratatouille? And then I remembered this recipe from Joy the Baker (who has a fun and tasty blog, indeed). Tomato cobbler with blue cheese biscuits. I had pinned it a couple weeks ago, and it really knocked my socks off visually and in the way it was described. So I went to work. Changing the recipe to suit my own needs, of course! I added some of the eggplant, and changed blue cheese to gorgonzola. GORGONZOLA is one of my FAVORITES. It turned out delicious. If you'd like to try my version, here is what you need:

Preheat your oven to 375. Caramelize your onions in olive oil. Add in the garlic when they are almost finished. Once the onions are browned, take off the heat and add the balsamic. While your onions are caramelizing, combine the tomatoes, eggplant, basil, flour, and spices into a big bowl.

Add the onions and stir gently until well mixed. Pour into a square baking dish or pan.
Bake the mixture for 20 minutes.

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While it is baking, start on the biscuits. Whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Add the butter. Break up the butter into the flour with a fork or your fingers until the butter pieces are the size of peas. Add the gorgonzola and stir it in. Add the milk, and stir just until it is mixed together. Pour out the dough onto a floured area, and knead 10 times. Flatten out into a 1 inch thick circle.

Using a biscuit cutter or a 2 inch wide glass, cut out your biscuits. There should be 9 to 10 biscuits. Or 12 if you make a couple drop biscuits out of the scraps like I did. Feel free to use child labor. They love it.

After the tomato eggplant mixture is finished baking, top it with as many biscuits as you would like. But be sure to leave a bit of space for the tomato mixture to bubble up. You can freeze the remaining biscuits, or put them on a separate pan to bake like I did. The littles ate up the extras- cheesy biscuits are officially a hit here.

Bake another 18 to 20 minutes, or until the biscuits are lightly browned, and the mixture starts bubbling. Let cool for 15 minutes, and then dig in!